TRIGGER WARNING!
This website contains poetry and true stories about trauma, personality disorders, suicidal thoughts, self-harming, depression and other significant mental health issues, as well as personal stories of emotional neglect and physical and sexual abuse, which some people might find disturbing.
Please support us this Christmas and help us continue running Poetry for Mental Health. Every little helps, and ALL donations go towards promoting and publishing poetry for mental health. Click on the button below for donation options or contact us to sponsor this platform. Thank you!
Poetry for Mental Health
Supporting people with mental health challenges by motivating and inspiring them to write poetry.
"Poetry for Mental Health has supported thousands of people around the world through words and poetry!"
ROBIN BARRATT - Founder POETRY FOR MENTAL HEALTH
I formed
Poetry for Mental Health at the outbreak of COVID, as a way of helping people cope mentally through lockdown and the pandemic by inspiring them to write poetry. Five years, seven books, hundreds of poets, and thousands of pieces of poetry later,
Poetry for Mental Health
is still inspiring people to write poetry for positive mental health! And with around 1600 visitors each and every month, it
is now probably the largest and most visited website of its kind on the net!"
~
"No matter what your age, background and experience, culture or identity; whether an established writer with many published titles to your credit, or an aspiring poet who has never written a word of poetry in your life, our philosophy here is to embrace, welcome and support everyone, everywhere suffering from mental health challenges, and help you cope through words and poetry ... Get writing!"
NEW - This Week's Featured Poetry (x4)
Week commencing Monday 17th November, 2025
BIPOLAR
By Jean Antonello
Like a kite bouncing on air
My feelings flair;
I writhe, I spit, I yell, I swear—
A tension lives within my chest;
The inevitable reacted-ness
I can’t escape my head or heart
Where craziness gets its start—
A secret place I cannot tell—
Who the hell would understand?
Even I don’t understand
And then, all spent, now in the basement
Where I regret, and let my fears
Consume each thought and breath—
Depression like a swamp sucks
The life from me and there I’m stuck
But gloom is fleeting as you’ll see
For within a day or two or three
I get back to the manic state
Where over does it is the rule
And leaves the ignorant wondering who
ABOUT JEAN: "I was diagnosed with bipolar 1 disorder about thirty-five years ago. I have been hospitalized several times for the disorder. I have been stable for several years. I am deeply grateful for my psychiatrist and for medications!"
A SILENT BATTLE
Samantha Rae Soria
Do you hear the whispers in the darkness?
Have you seen the person behind the mask on the shallows?
Anguished feelings behind the shadows of madness
road maps are crazy that no one follows
A battle with no guns, no shield ,no bullets
No crew, No tanks just one man standing,
behind the strength is a deep cut
and a reminder to keep on fighting
those silent cries yet who is to blame
only birds with the same feather understands this dangerous game
despite the hard work the results are same
just your name with an excuse so lame
I wish upon a star
that the silent warrior goes far
be heard, understood, and win the war
a war that has a lot of demise
a silent battle to be won in pure blessing in disguise
LITTLE DEATHS
By James Aitchison
every day
we die
little deaths
of lost hopes
and dreams
and betrayals
but every day
somewhere inside us
something new
something beautiful
is born
FATAL DROPLETS
By Shreya Pendurkar
The fatal droplets of sorrow
slide profoundly
down the noisy pits of my eyes.
Those lonely-fidgeting fingers
and soggy mouth
grab my feeble heart
and crushes it into tiny pieces.
My heart is a dead leaf full of vain and grief;
it drowns deep
into the bulky area of
dread, demise, distress and disaster.
Lend me some sunshine,
lend me some air
to Inhale into my deepest lungs.
Lend me love and lend me glory
so that I can stop interrupting into the chaotic melancholies of solitude
and enter the social alley of talking animals.
Somewhere
under the distortion of unintentional fear,
lies a little notorious raged story ---
Sometimes
I wish I could replace myself
with someone special
then again, I guess, I might drag that special person into the waters of dead lonesomeness.
And take his life.
And just like me, the other might turn stagnant and viciously miserable.
'I am infectious!'
The fatal droplets of insecurities
and smothering suffocation of listless-ness
turns me into a lifeless junk I wish I never were.
The fatal droplets of pale-pink eyes
become my refuge
toward a silent and locked up life.
I wish I could find some peace,
but there are parts of my body
which aren't at ease with my choices
and decisions of light.
So, I hereby request my eyes to wake up
and wake up now
until life may face its end-line.
I hope that my polished livelihood
inside the manic shut doors of safety and silence
finds its place outside the line of comfort.
Let me live, live and live.
And let those fatal droplets sunk inward,
and disappear out of glories
completely...
completely...
ABOUT THE POEM: "I try to put emphasis on my deranged state of misery. I write about my insecurities— about my lack of social interaction with others and the amount of pain it causes to me."
ABOUT SHREYA: Shreya is 20 years old and lives in India. She was diagnosed with clinical depression and anxiety in 2019. She's learned to live with it, and sort of ‘know’ it over the years.
Lots more Featured Poetry ...
On the themes of mental health, from hundreds of poets around the world.
"Why is poetry so very good for people with mental health challenges? Because it helps them see the world in their own way, and in a way that makes sense to them ..."
Robin Barratt
Our Books
GREAT CHRISTMAS GIFTS!
Treat yourself, or someone close, to a copy of one of our acclaimed books this Christmas. They make inspirational gifts, all are five star rated at Amazon, and all profits from sales go back into promoting and publishing poetry for mental health. Click on the link below for further details, contents list, and to order a copy from Amazon websites worldwide. Thank you!
"People can benefit from writing poetry because it can take the images and the talk in your head and transfer it to paper. It’s like getting the words out
of your head so that they don’t linger there."
Nadine Dunseith
Personal Journeys
In their own words, writers and poets write about their own personal journey with mental health.
Interviews
Nine amazing writers and poets about their journey with mental health.
Featured Poets
Featuring almost 80 poets around the world, with up to six pieces of their work, and a little about the author and the stories behind their work.
NEW - Featured Books
Promoting books and publications on the themes of mental health.
Articles
Articles about poetry and positive mental health.
Writing Poetry for Mental Health Course
Our new online Writing Poetry for Mental Health course will be available again soon!
We are established internationally as one of the leading resources for poetry and mental health and, over the past five years, have supported hundreds people across the world and showcased thousands of pieces of poetry! If you already write poetry, but would like to further develop your skills and style, or have not written a word of poetry in your life, but would like to start, then this course will be perfect for you.
Publishing Services
We publish books for other people too!!!
Would you like to see your poetry collection published as a paperback and Kindle, and available for other people to read around the world? Prices start from just £150.00 for a chapbook / short collection. Click on the link for more info.
Newsletters ...
NEW - Newsletters ONLINE
What's new at Poetry for Mental Health. Our monthly newsletters are now available to read online.
Send us your name and email address and we'll keep you updated with our news and calls for submissions. We'll never send you more than one email a month, or pass your details onto anyone else ... ever!
Other ...
Directory of Support Services
Charities, groups and organisations worldwide offering mental health help and support to people in crisis.
Mental Health First Aid
Identifying warning signs of common mental health crisis, and how to guide a person towards safety and appropriate help. More info ...
Mental Health Awareness
Safer Minds believes everyone, everywhere should have some awareness of basic mental health.
“No matter how bad something may seem at that moment in time when you feel all is lost, it can get better if you can only give it more time."
Lynda Tavakoli
NOTE ON CONTRIBUTIONS: We publish mental health poetry from around the world, and for a number contributors to this website, English is not their first language. Unlike some other platforms, we don't heavily edit a poet's own work (if we did, it would then not be their own work!), so please focus on a poet's messages and meanings, and not necessarily on any grammatical mistakes or translated imperfections that may arise within their contribution.
